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Hackers have swiped personal data of nearly 1.3 million Sega video game players, the Japanese company has revealed. The information included names, birth dates, email addresses and encrypted passwords, reports AP. Service was "illegally accessed from outside and personal information of all" customers of the online Sega Pass, operated by Sega Europe, was hacked, said a statement from the firm. Sega assured customers that no credit card information was accessed, but the data could conceivably be used to access or utilize such information elsewhere.

"Please note that no personal payment information was stored by Sega as we use external payment providers," said the company. News of the hack was initially only explained online in Japanese as the service was shut down, notes CNN. English language users were merely told the service was closed for "maintenance work." Sega is investigating the breach and has changed all user passwords. Earlier this year, hackers stole personal user data from Sony's PlayStation Network, which had some 70 million subscribers at the time. Sony was hit again by hackers early this month.